The Western Digital VelociRaptor

Ideally we would always choose a full retail sample over an OEM product, but sometimes this is not possible. Our sample VelociRaptor came to us in a sealed anti-static bag, but I have purchased a few retail hard drives in my day and can say that Western Digital has always done a good job protecting their hard drives from damage. Most of their retail drives come with a plastic molded surround that keeps the drive in the middle of the oversized package.

Here we see the 2.5 inch drive for the first time in its 3.5 inch bracket that doubles as a heatsink. The entire bracket is made of aluminium and has fins like a heatsink that help remove heat from drive.

On the back side we see that Western Digital has included a security measure by placing a special sticker over one of the torx bits that secure the drive to the bracket.

Here we get a better look at the drives label on our sample; the 3.5 inch, SATA Connect (non backplane capable), 300 GB variant, model number WD3000GLFS.

Western Digital made full use of the bracket/heatsink; here we see that the cooling fins are placed everywhere possible.